


Library Sessions

by Creativity_s_Loyal_Servant



Series: Library AU Reader Inserts (ft. Rhys) [1]
Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Gen, Library AU, M/M, Reader-Insert, gender neutral reader, i actually wanted to make rhys the cute librarian but then i rolled with this, oh well, rated t because reader swears a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 09:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8572891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Creativity_s_Loyal_Servant/pseuds/Creativity_s_Loyal_Servant
Summary: You started off wanting to pass this class because oh my god, you were failing so badly at this and you really wanted to be able to graduate. Really, that was it.Now you have to deal with your dumb crush on this dumb guy that was kind of cute. God damn it.





	1. First Meetings

**Author's Note:**

> So, wow. This is the first time in a long time I've written a Rhys/ Reader. And also the first time I've ever written a gender neutral reader insert which was completely unintentional but good at same time?
> 
> Oh, this is a Gen reader insert as well. First time for everything.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the fic!

 

“-And that concludes today’s lesson!” The lecturer shuts his book with a snap, settling it down on his desk. “Now remember, everyone, the exams are coming up and I expect each and everyone of you to pass this test. And that means you too, Jerry. So brush up, study and be prepared for next week. Good luck.”

Mumbles and the scrapes of chairs fill the air as the students pack up and head off onto their next destination, whether it be the dormitories or their next classes. The hall begins to empty, leaving a few stray students behind to ask questions or wait up on their friends.

And then there was you.

You let out a groan as you run your hands down your face. You felt like screaming to the heavens; why? Why the hell did you decide to pick this class out of all the other subjects you could’ve chosen? Frankly, you were terrible at it and despite channeling all of your attention into focusing on the lessons, you just couldn’t understand it. Everything was just… _confusing_.

And now the exams were coming in three days and you still don’t understand anything after about two semesters worth of lessons (you ponder how you even managed to survive this far.)

You slam your head on your desk. _Fuck_.

Eventually, you muster the energy to get up and shove all your belongings into your bag. Everyone was already gone but really, you couldn’t care less about being the only person left in class. The fact that you were failing in this class was more important to worry about.

“Wait.” Your teacher calls your name right as you put one foot out the door. “Could we speak for a moment?”

You exhale in defeat, turning around and walking back.

“Yes, Professor Lawrence?” You force a polite smile.

Your teacher, Timothy Lawrence, hesitates for a moment before sighing.

“I’ll be honest with you; your grades have been wavering from a fail to barely passing it at all. Yet, you’re not a student who slacks off nor messes around in my class or others. Is there anything that’s bothering you?” He quirks a brow behind his glasses, a concerned look.

“No, Professor, it’s just- I don’t understand the concepts or the topics. I mean, I can grasp at the basics, but other than that, I…” You trail off, frustrated and annoyed at yourself.

“I see.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I would give you private lessons, if the time you have right now wasn’t so limited and crucial. Your exams _are_ in three days.” Mr. Lawrence states before clearing his throat. “For now, all I have to say is to try your very best and to study very hard. Perhaps you can take to the library for revising, since few people ever go there.”

You want to say that studying didn’t really help, because really, the books just made everything sound more complex, but what other choice do you have?

“Alright, Professor.”

Mr. Lawrence quirks a small smile.

“I’m sure you’ll do well. Just believe in yourself and you’ll get there.”

You wave goodbye and walk out the hall.

You hope he’s right, otherwise, you’d need a goddamn miracle to save your grades.

* * *

 “Okay, man, get your shit together and let’s study this.” Is what you said to yourself when you entered the library, settled into an empty spot and dropped a stack of textbooks _forty five minutes ago_. “I’m going to fail this fucking test.” Is what you _just_ said to yourself, with your head down in a rather thick textbook with your hands carding through your hair in frustration.

To no avail, even after having all your notes and references out to further your understanding on the topic, you were still lost. How this was possible, you weren’t sure.

But you were pretty sure if nothing got into your head by this week, you were going to absolutely flunk this exam.

You let out a muffled scream into the text of the book.

“Uh… excuse me?”

You nearly bang your head against the back of your chair in a startle before turning to the source of the voice.

A rather lanky boy stood in front of you, his arms cradling a couple of textbooks of similar sizes to yours. You briefly sweep his figure up and down; hazel locks slicked back, mismatched eyes of sapphire blue and chocolate brown and an old Hyperion modelled robot arm in the colour of yellow mustard.

“Hi- sorry to disturb, but-” He sort of gestures the best he can with his occupied hands to the table that was littered with your reading material and notes. “Do you mind if I sit here?”

“N-Not at all!” You stutter out as you hastily clear away your mess to allow room for his own stationery.

“Thanks.” He replies, soft and with a smile as he sits down just opposite you, and sifts through his books to study.

You mumble out a ‘no problem’ before returning, to a rather weak attempt, to study.

It’s not that the guy in front of you is distracting you. Sure, he’s a little cute, but you don’t know him nor seen him around campus before. You suddenly feel a whole lot more aware of what you’re doing, which is everything but studying the text in front of you. But somehow, you can’t help but steal little glances from your books to look at him.

You notice that he has similar, no, the same books as yours.

You notice that his hair is actually a little bit messed up but somehow fluffy at the same time?

You notice that he’s _staring right at you_.

You fluster and blush before averting your eyes back to the text, though, not really taking anything you’re reading in your head.

“Hey, uh.” He clears his throat. “You’re from Professor Lawrence’s class, right?”

You blink, before nodding slowly. He seems to brighten up, before extending a hand.

“I’ve seen you quite a bit, s-since we’re from the same class, but I doubt you’ve seen or heard of me before, since I always sit at the back! Haha-” He lets out a nervous laugh and casts his eyes to the side for a moment before looking back at you. “Anyway, I’m Rhys. Nice to meet you...?”

You gingerly grasp his hand and shake it as you tell him your name. He smiles back, a bit wider this time, and you can't help but do the same.

His gaze shifts to the pile of books in front of you and cocks a brow.

“You're studying for his class too?” Rhys asks, peering at your notes.

“Yeah, but…” You falter slightly, causing Rhys to look up at you. “Honestly… I don't understand a darn thing in his class no matter how hard I listen.” You admit, embarrassed.

“Well, maybe I could lend a helping hand and teach you.” He suggests with a coy smirk that devolves into a timid smile. “Th-That is if y-you're  _okay_ with it.”

“ _Please._ ” You hold up a sheaf of your notes and shake it in emphasis. “Teach me this bullshit before I lose my mind _and_ fail my examination.”

Rhys snorts and grins before he switches his position, pulling up a chair next to you. His hand brushes against yours for a moment as he grabs his textbooks and you shiver at the contact.

“Okay, so-”

And he explains and explains and explains. You feel guilty for stopping him several times in places where he went a bit too fast or when you outright didn't understand at all, but he’s nothing short of patient. He goes through each chapters thoroughly and meticulously, leaving no details behind yet none of it being overwhelmingly complicated. Eventually, after two hours worth of studying, you manage to understand the first couple of chapters of the subject.

It's enlightening.

“Ah, shit.” You notice Rhys glance at the clock just above the library reception, hands indicating that it's 6.30 p.m. “It's pretty late.” He mutters, rubbing the dust out his eyes.

You apologise quickly for taking so much of his time and potentially ruining his own revision schedule but Rhys brushes it off with a smile.

“It's fine. I'd forgotten some of the points in the other chapters so this was a good refresher for me and a good revision sesh for you.” He shoots a grin at you as he packs his stuff into his satchel. “I should be sorry that I didn't manage to cover all the topics we learnt in class.”

“That's fine!” You blurt out unprofessionally. “Thank you! For teaching all of this to me and putting up with me. I appreciate it! A lot.”

Rhys smiles back.

“It's no problem.”

He tucks in his chair and turns to leave. You're about to say goodbye to him but he interrupts the silence, turning back for just a moment.

“If you want… we could study again tomorrow, if you're free?” Rhys turns back to look at you with an anxious expression.

You smile back.

“Absolutely.”

Rhys gives you the biggest grin you've ever seen before he waves goodbye and walks out of the library, nearly tripping as he goes. You continue staring even as his footsteps fade off into the distance.

So now, you had two things to worry about. One was the possibility that you could still fail this class even after revising. The other was about this big dumb crush you now had on this dumb tall cute boy that was making your heart swell with an uncomfortable but satisfying warmth.


	2. Getting to Know Each Other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you and Rhys meet up again and also go out for lunch. Because that's what study mates do, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'll be finished by tomorrow, or at least the day after that. So enjoy another update to this weird reader insert thingy.

You realise that both of you didn’t negotiate a time to meet up at the library. And neither of you have each other’s numbers.

Shit.

‘No matter!’ You think to yourself as you trudge your way to the library with books in hand. ‘Doesn’t matter if he’s a no show or not, I have to at least cram this stuff in my head.’

You push open the doors to the library and head over to the spot you had taken up yesterday. Fortunately, no one has taken it for their own group studies.

Unfortunately, this means that Rhys isn’t here either.

You sigh, disappointed. Wait, disappointed? Why did it mattered whether he turned up or not? You wave the thoughts out of your head quickly and snap open the book to where you- _the two of you_ \- had left off.

From yesterday’s session- _with Rhys_ , your traitorous brain adds,- the first few chapters were definitely more understandable than what you learnt in class. Hell, it even helped you with the chapters that you had yet to cover. Well, a little bit.

Even with the support of the earlier chapters, you were still struggling. It wasn’t as bad as before, but it was still enough to not understand the major details of the later chapters. You groan. You wish that Rhys was here right now, sitting next to you, guiding you through the steps and analysis of the points, occasionally brushing against your shoulder when leaning forward to help point out each little detail for you-

Oh no, you’re blushing.

 _Thump_.

You nearly yelp at the sudden noise of books being deposited on the table. You look up to see the culprit’s face and-

Oh. So he really did come.

“Sorry, did I surprise you?” Rhys laughs, running his hand through his hair. “I didn’t mean to. Hope you weren’t too scared.” He takes a seat next to you, gauging your expression, which was currently a flurry of red and pink on your face.

“N-Nope, I’m fine.” You utter out, trying to regain the breath that was spooked out of you and get rid of the prominent blush on your face.

“So, uh, sorry that I didn't really specify a time to meet here?” Rhys gives a rather weak smile as he shrugs. “At first I thought you might want to meet up at the same time as yesterday but I'm glad I went with my head and came here now. My bad.”

“It's fine, Rhys. Stop apologising.”

Rhys opens his mouth midway before realisation lights up his eyes and he closes his mouth and silently cracks open his textbook. He clears his throat and tugs at his collar.

“So. Shall we start?” He starts, almost timid.

“Sure. In fact, I wanted to ask you about this chapter, actually-”

This time, the two of you manage to cover all the  necessary chapters for the test, in a decent span of time. Shortly after, you begin testing each other on the notes that were studied; questions either created from the top of your heads or from some past year papers. A few jokes were tossed in as well and sometimes you strayed off the study path, but it wasn't all for naught.

“Hey, uh…” Rhys interrupts you, drawing your gaze from your marked test paper on the subject from last semester. “D-Do you wanna… I don't know… grab lunch?” He asks, rubbing the back of his neck. “There's a nearby cafe here that has some really good coffee and snacks and maybe y-you'd want to join m-me? U-Unless you have plans or you're just, maybe, busy?” Rhys adds hastily after a bout of silence from you.

“No, I could go for lunch!” You reply just as fast as he asked, afraid that he might reject himself before you answer. “A-And that sounds great! Uh, should we go now or-?”

“Yeah, no, now’s okay!” Rhys haphazardly stuffs his belongings into his bag. “Let's go!”

You mirror his actions and shove everything down into your bag, before the two of you get up and head out.

* * *

 It doesn’t take long for the both of you to arrive at the cafe (it was just a short walk out the library and across the street) and buy your refreshments. You opted for a sandwich and a hot chocolate while Rhys decided on a donut and coffee.

You raise an eyebrow at the pink sugar coated donut with coloured sprinkles in his hand.

“What? I just like sugary stuff, okay?” He takes a bite out of the pastry in his hand, almost offended. “Don’t judge me for my food preferences.”

“I didn’t say anything.” You simply reply with an innocent smile.

Rhys narrows his eyes and huffs at you.

“So,” He leans back in his chair and stretches a little. “Why did you pick Professor Lawrence’s class if you didn’t like it?”

“It’s not that I didn’t like it; I do, but all the fancy mumbo jumbo stuff that he talks about… eh, that doesn’t get through. You know?” You shrug, taking a small bite out of a sandwich.

Rhys stares at you, as if expecting a better explanation.

You sigh.

You begin to tell him that you picked the class because you were just interested in it, that’s it. You weren’t expecting it to be as hard as it was. You tell him that yes, you could have picked another class, but you came into college still not knowing what to do with your life and future so you decided a range of subjects that you both liked and felt like it would be useful in pursuing some sort of career.

You tell him that you _could_ drop out, but you were already almost a year into the class already, and dropping out and going into another class would be resetting your progress into actually learning a subject and you didn’t really want that.

You tell him that it’s because of this that you had to just bite your tongue and stick with the decision, because otherwise, your future was at stake.

… Your chest feels a little bit tight.

Rhys is quiet. You realise that you’re not looking at him anymore, but at your hands sat upon your lap. You don’t want to look up.

“Well, I’m not going to advise you on what you can or can’t do, but…”

You look up. Rhys shoots a comforting smile your way.

“I’m here to offer help in studying if you ever need it.”

You tell Rhys thank you.

You also tell him that that was the most cheesiest and cliché thing that a person could ever say. Rhys rolls his eyes, with a big dorky grin on his face.

He, in turn, tells you about his dream and ambition to become an employee in Hyperion, a company that specialises and is renown in their robotics and technology. He tells you that it has been his dream to be the one running the show, to be the manager of pretty big company, in this case, the biggest being Hyperion.

He also tells you, reluctantly and embarrassed, that he used to make little business cards within his group of friends back in elementary, just to pretend he was in a company.

“Tiny business cards?” You ask, tone near incredulous and brimming with giggles.

“Yes! Tiny business cards!” He repeats back, running a hand down his face whilst avoiding your gaze. “Don’t... make this weird.”

You snort.

“I think you’re the one making a fuss about this, Rhys.”

He groans. And you laugh.

You don't catch the blush on his face. He doesn't see the happy twinkle in your eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the ending felt a little anti-climatic. I wasn't sure whether to add on to it since I was planning to just end it after Reader finishes their exams. I did want to add in a scene where Rhys invites Reader to his dorm for further study sessions and maybe shenanigans (ft. Vaughn) but I didn't really know where to go with that. 
> 
> As per usual, feel free to leave comments to tell me if I sucked in any parts.


	3. The Final(e)s

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The exam comes.
> 
> You're ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: I literally woke myself up and thought "SHIT I MADE IT NOT GENDER NEUTRAL FROM THAT ENDING" and immediately edited it out. Sorry for those who read that part! I fixed it!
> 
> Enjoy the last part of this reader insert (it's a long one!)

The day passes quickly; the two of you finish your conversations, head back into the library to squeeze in more studying and out again when it was late (though, this time, the two of you had negotiated a time for tomorrow; around the evening. You had both exchanged numbers as well, should anything else arise.)

Tomorrow (which is now today) passes even faster the second the two of you get to studying. The two of you test each other on anything that could be scavenged from the textbooks to test papers to the possible questions that could pop up during the upcoming exam. It's a system; Rhys would ask a question and you would answer. He would then deem it right, or wrong, in which case he explains the answers and where you fell flat. Then vice versa.

You answered most of them correctly, but those few stray questions that knocked you off guard scared you.

“I don't know, Rhys.” You say, an hour into the session when the two of you decided a break was needed. “What if this is just a fluke and when the actual exam comes, I fuck everything up? I don't want to fail again.” Your voice goes uneven for a bit as it catches in your throat.

“You won't.” He says firmly, placing a hand on your shoulder (you almost shiver at the touch.) “Sure, we just started revising together two days ago, but I think- no, I _believe_ you made plenty of progress.”

You bite the inside of your cheek.

“Maybe I should stay here for a few more hours just to drill it in. You can go back to your dorm if you want to-”

“Hey.” Rhys frowns, his eyebrows furrowing. “It isn't good to stay up to study and stress over this. This test isn't until Thursday, and we still have other exams to go for starting tomorrow, which I'm sure you want to at least brush up a little on.”

You stay quiet. Rhys’ lips curl into a sympathetic smile.

“Don't worry about it. You can do this. But… if you really want to stay here for another couple hours… I'm sticking with you. Okay?”

You hesitate for a moment before reciprocating a small smile.

“Okay.”

Eventually, after another half hour of quizzing each other a whole lot, you decide against staying in the library and opt to head back to the dorms. You both pack up, head out and wish each other luck before heading your own separate ways.

It's not that you were already confident enough with your newfound knowledge of the subject. Honestly, you didn't want Rhys pushing himself to the brink of tiredness just to keep you company.

Even if that sounded nice.

* * *

It has begun. _The exams_.

You’re more than grateful that Rhys had advised you against staying up; now you’re energised and ready to take on the first test of the week and day.

You also happened to wake up a bit earlier than expected. Like, an hour before the actual exam, earlier than expected.

You take this time to quickly freshen yourself up and study (more like skim, honestly) a little for your first test. You’re slightly worried about today’s exam, but that’s just because it’s the first day. You’re actually not too shabby in this subject, hitting the normal B’s and the occasional A’s. But a bit of last minute cramming doesn’t kill a person.

You decide that it’s time to go. You pack up your things, making sure everything is with you before you set off.

The hall is mostly still empty, save for a few students who decide on making it to class earlier than the rest to probably ease the stress out of them before the examination. You make your way down the hall and-

Rhys passes you by.

You startle and turn around to make sure your eyes didn’t deceive you. Sure enough, it is him. He too, turns to look at you. His wide eyed expression evolves into a dumb grin, as he shoots a thumbs up and mouths the words, ‘good luck.’

You smile back, and reciprocate the gesture with a silent ‘you too.’

Both of you head to the different ends of the hallway.

* * *

You don't manage to meet up with Rhys after the test (which had went well; the questions were easy and a little tricky, but nothing too bad.) You do spy him with another person though, who was a lot shorter than Rhys and had a pretty cool pair of glasses. Must be a friend.

Rhys manages to find you within the crowd staring at him, and he waves wildly with the biggest dumbest grin you've ever seen. You suppress a giggle as you wave back.

You don't manage to meet up with him to talk though, since an anxious classmate had pulled you away to discuss the answers on the test you just took. Instead, just before you're dragged out of sight, you shoot Rhys a shrug and a pity smile that hopefully read, ‘sorry, I can't talk, my friend wants to see if we got the same answers so we would either pass or fail together.’

You don't see Rhys’ expression shift as you turn to your friend; the enthusiastic grin fading to a rather sad smile.

* * *

The days pass in a similar manner; you wake up, prepare yourself to head for your morning exam, catch a glimpse of Rhys down the hall, have lunch, go for the afternoon exam and then it's back to the dorms again. All the subjects so far were ranging from medium difficulty to easy, which hopefully, didn't mean that you screwed up.

You and Rhys had no time to meet up, unfortunately, partially because of the exams and mostly because he and his friend (who you saw that day with him) held their own study sessions. Apparently, Rhys was terrible at Chemistry, and his friend, Vaughn, was helping him the best you can.

‘ _Well, why did you pick chemistry?_ ’ You sent your question through the barrage of Rhys bemoaning the horrifying subject known as Chem.

‘ _Because!!!_ ’ He starts out with a reply that takes five minutes to come with a second part. ‘ _Im an idiot_ (“>_>)’ He adds a nervous emoticon at the end of it.

‘ _Good job._ ’

‘ _Don’t patronise me._ (⊙‿⊙)’

You chuckle at the message, before typing in a ‘good luck, nerd’ and switching off your phone to flip through another subject’s textbook for revision.

Thursday comes. The dreaded test.

As you’re prepping and hyping yourself up for today (you woke up a little too early again in stress of it,) your phone lets out a little chime. You pick it up and tap your message icon, wondering who the heck could be texting you at this hour.

It’s Rhys. Of course.

‘ _Hey do you wanna… maybe walk to class together??? Its cool if you dont wanna hahahaha_ (/@_@/)’

Pft.

‘ _Yeah, that sounds good. Do you want to meet outside the campus or?’_

‘ _Hahaha you see about that… whats your dorm number_ @_@’

You frown, confused.

‘ _What for?’_

‘ _For reasons. Reasons like not wanting to look like an idiot looking for your room hahaha_ (≖﹏≖)’

_‘Are you kidding me, Rhys.’_

_‘No I’m not. Please tell me your dorm number people are starting to stare at me’_

You tell him your room number. Within a couple seconds, you hear a knock at the door. You open it and lo and behold, Rhys stands there, a little bit flustered. He’s dressed in a loose hoodie and jeans and has a weird smile on his face.

“Hi.” He simply says with a slight jerk of his head. “Can I come in?”

“I don’t know.” You say. “Can you?”

He shoots you a look. You smirk before giving way for him to come in.

“So,” Rhys takes a seat on your bed before deciding on lying on it. “You ready for the test?”

“Eh, sort of? Maybe?” You shrug as you sort through your stuff in your bag, checking for the fifth time that you didn’t leave any stationary behind. “Probably not.”

“Don’t worry about it. You studied for about a week-ish, both with and without me, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And you remember what everything means and how it adds up, _riiiight?”_

“Well, most of it.”

“Then, that’s good enough.” He kicks himself upright and supports himself with a hand palm down on your bed. “Don’t worry. You’ll do great.”

“I hope you’re right.” You mumble, shuffling your bag onto your shoulders.

“I’m always right.”

“Like how you’re always right with those Chemistry questions?”

“... Shut up.”

The two of you walk together out the dorms (but not without some other people staring at the both of you) and into the lecture hall, all the while chatting about other things just so you could distract yourself.

Eventually, you’re in front of the door to what hopefully has stopped being your worst nightmare. You’re a little scared.

“Hey.” Rhys winks at you. “Good luck. Go destroy that test, okay?”

His phrasing makes you laugh a little.

“Alright.”

You both enter, take your separate seats and wait. More student file in and after some time, Mr. Lawrence strolls in himself.

“Well, today’s the day, guys. Hope you all studied really hard, because this test would be really easy if you did that.” He holds a stack of exam papers in his hands. “You know the examination rules by now; no talking, no cheating and no looking at each other. If you break those rules, you’re kicked out of the examination. Alright,” He takes a brief glance at the clock and begins to nonchalantly walk around the room, distributing the papers. “You have two hours. You may only open the papers and begin when I give the instruction to do so.”

You exhale quietly. You can do this. _You can do this_.

Mr. Lawrence slides the paper across your desk. He gives you a look, that somehow seems to fill you with confidence.

**_You can do this._ **

“Your time starts now.”

* * *

 ‘ _Soooooo how was it???_ (●︿●✿)’

‘ _I fucked up on some questions but… I think I can actually pass this!’_

‘ _Great!!! My baby is growing up_ (ಥ⌣ಥ)’

‘ _Rhys ew._ ’

‘ _Im so proud of you_ <3’

‘ _Rhys,_ **_stop._** ’

‘ _Hahahah but seriously good job!! Im sure you got really good grades_ :P’

‘ _We’ll see when the grades come out._ ’

‘ _And when they do were gonna compare and see who got the highest okay??’_

‘ _Sure, you nerd._ ’

* * *

“Your grades are back, and I’ll be honest, most of you did well, which is awesome!” Mr. Lawrence cheers as some of the class claps along to this small celebration. “You all passed, and I’m proud of all of you. But I suppose you want to know how well you did, so I’ll be passing your papers back right now.”

You’re near squirming in your seat as you watch your lecturer pace around the room and handing back papers. You notice that most of your classmates’ faces are happy and content with their scores but you also see some of them, crestfallen as they receive their results. But… Mr. Lawrence said himself that _no one failed._ Was it a lie? It couldn’t be a lie, right? You couldn’t have failed, right-?

You notice that Mr. Lawrence gingerly slides your paper into your hands, a warm smile on his face.

“Good job.” He says, like how a proud parent would say to a child who had received an award in school, and walks away to pass the next paper.

You stare down at your paper. You don’t believe your eyes.

It’s an A.

* * *

 You hear a knock on your dorm door. You bounce up immediately from your bed, your test paper with an A stamped in red on it in hand, and nearly fling open the door.

“Well, aren’t you happy?” Rhys laughs as he walks in with his own test paper in hand.

You shut the door with a very zealous slam and skip up to him, your head giddy.

“I got an _A_ ! For the very first time, in this freaking class!” You laugh almost maniacally, waving the test paper in front of his face before simmering down a little. “I’m sorry if I seem annoying but, holy shit… I never thought I would ever… _ever_ … get a proper grade, forget an _A_.”

“Beginner’s luck.” Rhys rolls his eyes playfully, and holds up his test, a blue B on it. “You even beat me on your first try. Don’t think you can get cocky after this, okay?” He chuckles, settling the paper on your study desk.

“I…”

You’re out of words. You don’t know what to say.

No, you _do_ know what to say.

“Thank you. Thank you so much for helping me.” You turn and look at him. “If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve just…”

“Nah, it came from you too.” He nudges you with a smile. “If you didn’t put in effort, you wouldn’t have gotten this far and beat me. So be proud of yourself.”

Your lips wobble a little. Not because you’re sad but you’re really _happy_ with yourself. And the fact that you passed with flying colours and the fact that you were just so lucky to meet this wonderful dorky guy that helped you on the right path and-

You’re kissing him. You don’t know how you got there or when you did but you’re grabbing him by the collar of his soft hoodie and kissing him on his even softer lips.

 _You’re kissing him_.

You quickly break the kiss, shocked and surprised at yourself. Rhys gasps a little as the two of you break apart, his eyes a little wide and a little out of breath.

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry. I was really, _really_ giddy and emotions got in the way and I just-”

Your words are muffled by his mouth on yours. _Oh._

This kiss lasts a little longer, and is more intimate, as Rhys slides his hands into your hair and holds you and in that moment, everything feels perfect and warm and fuzzy inside.

When you separate, you notice that Rhys’ face is covered in a pink blush. Your face feels hot too.

“I like you too. I’ve, uh. Sorta had a crush on you when I started to notice you both in class and out of class? That’s p-part of the reason why I talked to you in the first place.”

You blink at him, still speechless.

“D-Did I read the situation wrongly-?”

“No! You didn’t! Not at all!” You quickly interrupt him and he stops and stares at you again.

You’re both quiet. Rhys clears his throat after a while.

“So, let me give you a deal.” His voice wavers, still out of breath. “How about being more than study buddies and be more… lovers-ish?”

You breathe out a breath of relief that you didn’t know you were holding.

“Yes.” You say, your heart beating fast.

Rhys lets out a breathy laugh and nuzzles your cheek a little bit.

“Good.”

He kisses you again. This one lasts a whole lot longer than the first two kisses.

You don’t mind that at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOO BOY I DIDN'T EXPECT THIS PART TO BE AS LONG AS IT WAS, HONESTLY. I ALSO DIDN'T EXPECT TO FINISH IT SO THIS IS AN ACHIEVEMENT.
> 
> Boy, oh boy, this has been really great to write and has woken up my writing spirit in me once again. So hopefully you might be seeing more of my stories up here once again, haha! 
> 
> Sorry if the ending's a little cheesy or rushed. Didn't really know how to end it properly. Feel free to comment about my mistakes and tell me how to fix 'em.
> 
> Also, have a part that I wanted to add in but couldn't because I realise it would probably go against the gender neutral reader aspect of this fic:  
> ['For reasons. Reasons like not wanting to be kicked out by your dorm monitor hahaha (≖﹏≖)’
> 
> ‘RHYS YOU DID NOT’
> 
> ‘YES I DID NOW PLEASE JUST GIVE ME YOUR DORM NUMBER BEFORE I GET KICKED OUT’
> 
> You tell him your room number. Within a few seconds, you hear a sharp knock on the door. You open it and barely make way for Rhys to barrel his way in, slam the door shut and barricade it in an exaggerated manner. 
> 
> You stare at him. He stares at you and shoots you a nervous grin.
> 
> “Heeeeya. Nice room you got.”
> 
> “Mhm. That’s all you got to say?”
> 
> “... Ready for the exam today?”]
> 
> Yeah, that's about it. See ya guys later.

**Author's Note:**

> This will probably, most likely, be a two or three parter. So expect it to be updated.
> 
> Feel free to leave comments to tell me where I messed up.


End file.
